


Starlight

by ami_ven



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Community: writerverse, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-10
Updated: 2014-03-10
Packaged: 2018-01-15 05:45:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1293541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ami_ven/pseuds/ami_ven
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John and Rodney are not lost… they just don’t know exactly where they are.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Starlight

**Author's Note:**

> written for LJ community "writerverse" prompts "calming influence" & "lost in the city"

As they rounded another corridor that looked identical to all the previous corridors, Rodney made an irritated noise and smacked his completely-unhelpful scanner.

“Tell me,” he said slowly, “how we managed to get lost in our own city, sitting in the middle of San Francisco Bay?”

John swept the light of his P90 down the hall. “We’re not lost, McKay.”

They were in one of Atlantis’s lowest levels, well below the waterline, following up on some energy signatures that had appeared when they had gotten their _three fully-charged ZPMs_ hooked up. The readings from this level had been low but steady, and with no clear source. Rodney wanted to check it out himself, before some idiot could go poking around and blow up the whole city.

“How are we not lost?” Rodney demanded, bring up the control code on his scanner— if it wouldn’t scan, he could use the time to reprogram it.

“I know exactly where we are,” said John. “Atlantis.”

“You want to add ‘planet Earth’ to that, Colonel Directionally-Challenged? Because that’s not exactly helpful.”

John led them around another corner, into another identical corridor. “Okay,” he conceded. “We might not, exactly, know where we are. Are you picking up anything?”

Rodney thumped his scanner again. “Nothing. Which is bad, because if there really is nothing here, I should be at least reading the two of us, and if there’s something being shielded, I should be able to detect the shield.”

“Unless it’s a really _good_ shield,” said John.

Rodney ignored him. “I can only conclude that since the life-sign detectors are from Atlantis, the city can somehow override them, but I don’t see how it could—”

Suddenly, huge doors slammed shut at either end of the hall, and every light went out, even Rodney’s scanner and John’s gun.

Rodney froze. He wasn’t scared of the dark, but he didn’t exactly like it, either. “John?” he asked, softly.

“Here.” John sounded farther away than he’d been a moment ago, and Rodney’s genius brain started imagining all of the ways they could _die horribly_. He didn’t even realize he’d started listing them aloud until he paused to take a breath, and John said, “Keep talking, Rodney.”

“I’m going to remember you said that.”

A hand suddenly collided with Rodney’s ribs, making him jump. “Hey!”

“Sorry,” said John’s voice. “You okay?”

Rodney reached out at about shoulder level until his fingers caught on the edge of John’s tac vest. “Am I okay?” he repeated. “I’ve been led into an unsecured section of the city by a lunatic with no sense of direction, and trapped in a pitch-dark corridor where we will probably starve to death, because something is blocking the radios and internal sensors, and we have no way out!”

John put his hands on Rodney’s waist and pulled him a little closer. “Feel better?” he asked, with a smile in his voice.

The thing was, he did. John was the only person who had ever just let him rant— sometimes, it seemed like he needed to hear it as much as Rodney needed to say it.

“Yeah,” said Rodney, and he actually felt himself relax a little.

“Good,” said John, and kissed him.

It was a little off-target, but light suddenly flashed around them and it was a moment before Rodney realized there was _actually light_. Tiny pinpricks of light shone from the ceiling, some brighter or larger than others.

“It’s the night sky,” said Rodney, in wonder. “The night sky _on Earth_ , as seen from North America. That must be the power reading we got, sensors tracking the stars… What did you do?”

He rounded on John, who was still gazing up on the faux-stars, tinted blue by the faux-starlight. “I—” John began, then smiled sheepishly. “I was thinking how much I’d like to kiss you under the stars.”

Rodney rolled his eyes, but grinned. They were still lost, and trapped, but that didn’t seem so dire, just then.

John looked around, frowning. “But why would the Ancients lock people in a planetarium?” he asked, and put one hand on the wall.

Both doors slid open, admitting harsh slashes of sunlight. They looked at each other for a moment, then Rodney put his hand on the wall beside John’s and the doors slid closed.

“We might as well… check this out,” he said, grinning.

John grinned back, and leaned in for another kiss. “Absolutely.”

THE END


End file.
